


Curled Up Together

by pushupindrag



Category: Captain America - All Media Types
Genre: Character Mentions, Cuddling & Snuggling, Fluff, M/M, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-14
Updated: 2015-04-14
Packaged: 2018-03-22 23:50:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3747763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pushupindrag/pseuds/pushupindrag
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cuddling comes naturally to Steve and Bucky, whether it's unconscious or not.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>  <i>Neither of them were heavy sleepers. They were restless and often woke each other up with nightmares or elbows to the ribs. That didn’t mean to say they were changing their sleeping arrangements anytime soon though.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Curled Up Together

**Author's Note:**

> My placement is boring as hell so I started to think about this and then it got out of hand.
> 
> Un-beta'd so any mistakes are purely my own, so please tell me if you find any :)

Neither of them were heavy sleepers. They were restless and often woke each other up with nightmares or elbows to the ribs. That didn’t mean to say they were changing their sleeping arrangements anytime soon though.

The king sized bed was too large for them, there was a generous dip in the middle of the mattress from where they curled together at night, blankets and pillows centered, the rest of the bed going unused until they fell into a rare deep sleep. These deep sleeps involved Steve taking up most of the space as he spread out, starfish like to the point where Bucky would compete in his sleep, ending with both of them tangled and spread pressed together, blankets and pillows in heaps on the floor. Blankets and pillows normally ended up on the floor anyway, because both of them ran abnormally hot, the protective warmth that the blankets and quilts held while they drifted to sleep became uncomfortably hot prisons that they both kicked and shuffled away. Mumbling grumpily to each other and themselves about it before going back to their ball of limbs.

When they curled up together, it was hard to see where one ended and the other began. Bucky normally used his metal arm as a way to keep Steve from thrashing in the night, and Steve threw his legs over Bucky’s own, suffocating Bucky with his hair. Not that Bucky cared, he just liked Steve’s snuffling breath along his collarbone if he ever woke up in a panic. It was a great way to ground himself. On other nights, Bucky would lay his head on Steve’s chest. To hear his heartbeat and breathing, reminding himself that Steve was still with him and alive. Steve didn’t mind, he just let his hand run through Bucky’s long hair, curling it around his fingers and scratching behind his partners ears like a cat, Barnes himself curled right into the curve of Steve’s side.

The nightmares were hell. Both men stayed in bed after it happened unless they grew too agitated to relax, which was getting more and more infrequent as the years went by. The little safe haven of a house that they had built together was normally enough to quell any need to flee or attack anything within reach. If it got too bad they went running, sometimes on their own but mainly with each other, just so that the other didn’t push themselves to breaking point. And the bed was always there to welcome them back.

Cuddles were a daily routine. Waking up in the morning, they cuddled grumpily, kicking each other until one of them got up to make coffee. Or they used it to get themselves to sleep at night. Bucky sought out the grounding that the contact gave him, while Steve used the gestures to remind himself where he was and ultimately who he was.

Impromptu couch cuddles took place often, one falling asleep before the other who had to throw a blanket over the both of them. Leaving them snoring well into the movie or show they had tried to watch.

It wasn’t unusual to see them joined at the hip, arms slung around each other, or a head on a shoulder, fingers locked together at any point or legs tangled as they sat. Any way to keep in contact, even if it was just a foot against the others during a dull meeting with Coulson and the team.

Normality was Steve clinging onto Bucky for dear life after a mission, normality was Bucky clinging back, both standing wherever they had landed after being ushered away from the medics. Most probably in a corridor on the way to the communal area in Stark's tower before going home.

“Come on doll,” Bucky smiles, wiping some goop out of Steve’s hair. The monsters today had been quite explosive. He leaves his hand there, wrapped around Steve’s head “let’s get home.”  
“You guys can change here” Sam walks past, patting them both as he goes, shirt dropping to the floor as he grimaces, Sam had probably been hit the worst out of everyone and was covered from head to toe. Which was why the stripping was going on unnoticed.  
“Yer but-“ Steve doesn’t want to protest, but he liked the routine he and Bucky had set up post mission  
“You can do your weird cuddling thing here, they have softer blankets here anyway”  
“Hey-“  
“Your handcrafted blankets aren’t shit compared to these ones Steve come on.”

“I like them” Bucky assures Steve, butting his head against the tallers shoulder before steering them into the bathrooms on the floor.

What started out as their normal snuggle routine turns into a large Avengers scale cuddle pile.  
“Move your foot” Bucky grumbles before physically removing Clint’s foot from his general crotch area. He pulls Steve across from Natasha into his lap to fill the space that Clint’s foot had vacated to everybody but Steve’s displeasure. Steve ignores them and just nuzzles into Bucky’s chest rearranging himself so that he’s fully curled up, as Natasha settles back down against his back. From there Clint settles next to Bucky, with Sam sprawled across him and Tony who had stubbornly rolled his eyes at the pile before joining in. Thor is dozing lightly on Natasha’s shoulder and Bruce is on the floor with blankets and a tangle of legs.

Steve concentrates on none of that, he just pays attention to Bucky’s heartbeat beneath his ear, and the warm skin of his boyfriend’s hip under his fingers.

“Wait what weird cuddling thing?” He questions Bucky when they finally get back home, a small feeling of fullness settled deep within his chest at his team mates and acceptance of physical closeness.  
“I don’t know” Bucky shrugs back before they trudge up the stairs to bed.

The thing was, they didn’t realise they were doing it. The touches and the constant contact was second nature to the two of them. It wasn’t thought about or acknowledged because it was just part of who they were. Bucky and Steve had cuddled since they were kids, first needing warmth and then comfort and then because they found they were idiots in love. Nothing had changed that about them. Not time, brainwashing or snarky yet well-meaning team mates.


End file.
